1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an electronic personal organisor and in particular to an electronic personal organisor which can provide the same functions as a conventional personal organisor.
The term conventional personal organisor used herein refers to a compact hand held loose leaf binder into which may be inserted a number of pages which are obtainable in a variety of printed formats. For instance, a set of pages forming a year diary may be obtained, as may be a set of pages forming an A-Z address section. In addition to these conventional features, other pages, for instance maps, events calendars, and personal expenditure cost sheets may be obtained. Consequently, the conventional personal organisor has become in recent years a popular and to some indispensable medium for recording information. The term electronic personal organisor refers to an electronic device which can provide the functions of a conventional personal organisor.
An essential ingredient for the usability of such conventional personal organisors is the familiarity of their appearance to a user. The familiarity is based not only on the arrangements of alphanumeric visual cues, but on additional visual cues presented to the user. When looking at a conventional personal organisor open at, for instance, a page of the address section, the alphanumeric visual cues comprise cues specifying what sort of data is to be written in, for instance the alphanumeric visual cue may be the letter "A" at the top of a page specifying that surnames beginning with the letter "A" should be entered on that page. Such cues may be essential to both render the data meaningful, in that they give the context of the data, and to facilitate data retrieval. For instance, an entry in the address section is only readily retrievable because of the organisation of sections each corresponding to a letter of the alphabet, and will only be appropriately entered in the first place because of the cues to the user to input the name in its appropriate section. It is, however, essential that there are not only these alphanumeric cues derived from the column of letters of the alphabet running along one edge but also further cues deriving from for example, the following features; the provision of each letter of the alphabet on a sequential arrangement of single tabs; the overlaying a sheath of pages being divided into sections with each section having as its first page a page with such a tab, these cues being indicative of the organisaiton of the pages; the ring binders indicative of the manner in which pages may be turned over; and also the features which trigger the recognition in the user that the user is faced with paper upon which, his experience informs him, he can write with a pen or pencil.
Without these cues the user may not only not be able to readily use the address section, he may actually not recognise it as an address section at all. When the user recognises that what is before him is a depiction of an address section comprised of a number of pages and readily appreciates the manner in which he may use it there can be said to be a sufficiency of visual cues.
The term "representational graphics" used herein refers to a depiction displayed by a device which to a user sufficiently represents the appearance of a number of printed pages such as are used in a conventional personal organisor and which are together organised in the same manner as pages in a conventional personal organisor so that the nature and mode of use of the device would be readily apparent to that user, i.e. depictions which provide a sufficiency of visual cues.
2. Description of Prior Art
Portable computers are known which provide a variety of desirable notebook features such as diary or address book functions. Generally, information input is achieved through an alphanumeric keyboard. Consequently, input of information is not only somewhat slow but is also limited solely to alphanumeric text.
It is also known to provide arrangements for converting the position of a manually operated writing or tracing member into an electrical signal. For instance, transducer pads are known which provide electrical signals representing the co-ordinates of a point at which pressure is applied locally, by a stylus, to a writing surface of the pad.
Generally, such a writing surface is a flexible electrically resistive membrane separated from an electrically conductive base so that the pressure applied by the stylus results in electrical contact between the membrane and the base. Each pair of opposing edges of the membrane may have a voltage applied so that when pressure is applied by the stylus the potential of the base at the contact point is indicative of a position co-ordinate of the stylus. Consequently, continuous monitoring of the position of the stylus during writing or drawing is possible, allowing the simultaneous reproduction of the writing or drawing at a remote location and the digitising and storing of the writing or drawing in a digital frame store. Commonly, such arrangements are used in computerised design and computer graphic systems having substantial memories and processing power.
In addition, it is know to lay a transducer pad over a display panel to provide a touch screen. EP-A-0271280 discloses a personal computer based system using such an arrangement, which displays typographical arrangements corresponding to forms. The computer generates a number of user prompts, for instance highlighting a field in the form to be filled in and providing a menu of alternatives for insertion in that field. It will be appreciated that what is displayed are not representational graphics within the meaning of the term as defined herein.
Further reference may be made to GB-A-2145547 which discloses an electronic memo device comprising a transducer pad, display panel and keyboard. The purpose of the keyboard is to allow the input of indexing data to be associated with handwritten data input using the transducer pad. No representational graphics are utilised in this device whatsoever. The operating procedures required to use the product are also neither immediately familiar nor even readily learnt; the user/device dialogue is both unnatural and complicated. This is a major disadvantage when compared to the familiarity and ease of the use of a conventional memo device, i.e. printed memo pad.